How (And Why) To Run A Blog Series

Launching a blog series is a fantastic way to create some buzz and generate traffic to your blog. In today’s post, we’re going to teach you how to launch a series and also explain the benefits of doing so.

Blog Series Ideas

So first thing’s first. What the heck do you write about? Well, we’re happy to tell you that coming up with topics for your blog series is easier than you might realize. People in general like shorter bits of content … content that’s easy to read and quickly digest.

To develop topics for your blog series, think about high-level subject matter that’s more complex. Then plot out how you can break it down into blog post topics!

An example series might center around How To Run Your First Marathon. Topics in the series might include:

• How To Choose The Best Running Sneakers

• 5 Post Run Snacks To Help You Re-energize

• Tips For Avoiding Injuries While Running

• 3 Sample Marathon Training Schedules

• 10 Things You Must Do The Day Before Your First Marathon

Think about the questions you commonly get asked by your clients or customers. How can these questions be transformed into a blog series? The most important part of content development is making sure your audience is going to find it interesting and worthwhile to read!

For more advice on coming up with blog post ideas, read this blog post:

3 Ways To Come Up With Blog Post Topics

Tips For Writing Your Blog Content

Once you lock down the topics you’ll be covering in your blog series, the next step is writing the posts. Remember, posts within the series should be kept a bit shorter. The whole point of a series is taking a complex topic and breaking it down into smaller, more manageable, parts. Try and keep each post between 500-700 words if possible.

As you’re writing your posts, keep in mind that people are visual! Plan to utilize bullet points and line breaks to better organize your ideas. You should also incorporate relevant photos into your posts to create a more appealing aesthetic on the page. Because who wants to look at a screen full of words?

Another tip for writing your posts: Always be thinking about linking other relevant content! If there are blog posts you’ve previously written that tie into any of the topics in your series, find opportunities to link them.

As your series moves along, you’ll also want to try and link the earlier topics to the new ones. This can be done by simply recapping what the previous post covered at the beginning of your next post and then creating a link to it. Another pro tip: Tease your upcoming post at the end of each post!

Need extra tips for laying out your posts? Definitely read this!

How To Design Blog Posts

The point of a series is taking a complex topic and breaking it up into smaller parts.

Determining A Schedule

You’ve written all of this amazing content. Now what? It’s time to determine a posting schedule! How long is your series going to last? One week? A month? How will you space out your posts during this period of time?

We recommend waiting no more than a week in between posts. So if you’re running a blog series for a month and have four posts waiting in the hopper, you’d release a new post each week. The schedule truly doesn’t matter all that much … what does matter is communicating to your audience what that schedule will be and then sticking to it!

Promoting Your Blog Series

A blog series is a great way to grab new subscribers and re-engage your existing subscriber base as well. Utilize email marketing and social media to promote your series a week or two before it launches. Let people know what it will be about and, more importantly, why they absolutely need to tune in!

The Benefits Of Running A Blog Series

Here are just a few of the benefits to launching a blog series!

1. You’ll fill your content calendar.

A blog series will essentially eliminate that feeling of being stumped over content. Each post in and of itself is something to promote on social media. You can also extract interesting tidbits from each post and create infographics from them. There are countless ways to repurpose the content within your series. Get creative!

2. You’ll improve your SEO.

Each new blog post equals a newly indexed page on your website. Plus, “Offering a series of related posts allows you to interlink the posts between them, which helps with your SEO!” (The Sway)

3. You’ll generate more traffic to your website.

If your content is intriguing to your audience, they’ll be drawn to it … and keep coming back for more! While promoting your series before it begins is important, you’ll want to continue the push while it’s going on. Remind your followers on social media while the series is underway and tease your new, upcoming posts anytime you can.

4. You’ll establish yourself as an expert.

Writing a blog series can definitely help position you as an expert on the topic you’re covering. “It helps you establish your authority as you expand and execute on areas of your expertise and passion. The more you can share about a particular subject (and in an organized fashion) the better!” (John Saddington)

5. You’ll grab new subscribers.

As we’ve already mentioned above, if you’re producing valuable content within your series, there’s a great chance you’ll gain new subscribers who are interested in learning more about the subject you’ll be covering.

Have we motivated you to launch a new blog series? We sure hope so! Comment below if you’ve ever run a successful series and give us some insights on your winning formula!

New to blogging? Download our free guide to get yourself started in the right direction!

How To Start A Newsletter

A newsletter is a great way to stay in front of your clients, fans, and followers. Whether you’re running a special promotion or have a few new blog posts you’d like to share, a newsletter is the perfect vehicle to recap all the latest and greatest things you have going on in your business. In today’s post, we’re going to walk you through the basics of starting a newsletter.

Decide on a schedule.

If you want to start a newsletter for your small business, you’ll have to commit to being consistent. Just like with a blog, once you send out your first newsletter, your audience is going to expect to regularly hear from you. Don’t let them down by being inconsistent. Devise your game plan up front and create a publishing schedule that you can reasonably manage. Once per month. Once per week. Whatever it is, just be sure you can adhere to it.

Plan your content ahead of time.

There’s nothing worse than scrambling to throw together content at the last second. If you’re going to commit to running a newsletter, you’ll have to organize your content and plan ahead. If you’re publishing a monthly newsletter, you should develop your topics and content a month in advance. Look at what you’ll be posting on social media and your blog and flesh out the substance of your upcoming newsletter from there.

Pick a platform.

Ok, let’s talk tech. There are many different email platforms available out there. And quite frankly, you should use whatever one you’re most comfortable with. However, some things you might want to look for in an emailing software are:

• Responsive templates

• Design flexibility

• Ability to segment your contacts

• Opt-out management

• Automation

• Reporting tools

• Customer support

Familiarize yourself with your email software.

Make sure you’re completely comfortable using all aspects of whatever email software you decide upon. Play around with it ahead of time and tinker around with the design tools. You definitely won’t want to be fumbling around on the day your newsletter is supposed to launch. Outside of actually designing the newsletter, you’ll want to know how to create your email distribution lists and then how to analyze the results at the end of each campaign.

Feeling frantic is fun…

Said no one ever.

Create a buzz.

Prior to launching your newsletter, it will be important to drum up some excitement about it and start building your list of subscribers. Consider running a marketing campaign two to four weeks before publishing your first newsletter. Let your fans know what kind of content you’ll be sharing and why they should subscribe. This is key! People get more than enough junk mail and they certainly aren’t looking for more. Make sure you clearly communicate all of the benefits of opting in to your newsletter.

Make it easy to subscribe.

Actively promoting your newsletter will be the key to growing your subscriber base. We recommend setting up a landing page on your website where people can go to subscribe. Anytime you advertise your newsletter, you should link to this page. The landing page should also reiterate all of the benefits people will enjoy by subscribing to your newsletter. Again, get them excited about hearing from you! Aside from talking about your newsletter on social media, you can drop a few subtle hints about it by including a subscription box in the footer of your website and including a subscription link in your email signature as well.

Know where to go for graphics.

Quality newsletters not only sound great, but look great, too. As you’re planning out your content, think about what images your can pair with the various topics you’ll be writing about. If you plan on taking photos yourself, make sure they’re high quality. There’s nothing wrong with using photos taken on your iPhone IF they look professional. Don’t ever use blurry or low resolution images in your newsletter. If you take photos yourself, make sure the lighting is optimal and follow the rule of thirds. (For more tips on taking amazing photos using an iPhone, read this blog post.)

If you’re looking for stock imagery, we’ve got you covered. Check out the sites below. They’re a few of our personal favorites for beautiful stock photography.

Pixabay

Pexels

Unsplash

Adobe

Creative Market

Important note about photos! Be sure to keep the photos you use in your newsletter under 500KB a piece. Large file sizes will load slowly and make for a less than desirable reader experience!

By planning ahead, you’ll set yourself up for success with your small business newsletter. Remember, the key is consistency. Dedicate time and energy to consistently publishing great content and watch those subscriber numbers GROW!

Download our FREE Website Planner!

It’s the ultimate workbook to help you organize everything you’ll need for creating an awesome website.

Social Media Detox Part II

Hello May 6th (a.k.a. exactly one month into my social media detox)! I feel like I should stand up and say, “Hi, my name is Katie and I’m a social media addict.” Some days are easier than others and, as each day goes by, I do believe the temptation fades a bit more. However, it’s always there just as with any addiction.

I’ve caught myself on several occasions tapping on the Facebook app just out of habit. Within seconds it triggers a reaction of, “What the heck are you doing!?” and I quickly close the app. It’s not even a desire to check Facebook. It’s just a habit; muscle memory, if you will.

For the most part, I have no need or desire to log in to my social media accounts. The positivity that I experienced in Week 1 has just amplified tenfold. I’m basking in the benefits of living a full life, exploding with genuine face-to-face engagement with my friends and family. So what have I learned from this one-month hiatus?

My Social Life

As I mentioned after Week 1, my relationships with everyone around me have improved dramatically. One thing I hadn’t really experienced during Week 1 was going out without my trusty sidekick, my iPhone. In the last several weeks, we went out to dinner with several dear friends of ours and just yesterday we attended a birthday party for our tiny buddy, Oliver. Something I realized is that people haven’t really noticed my hiatus, which is interesting. I thought that my social media presence actually “meant” something and that if I was gone, people would miss my posts ... or would maybe even be worried about where I went. Just goes to show that my online presence, or lack thereof, isn’t nearly as Earth shattering as I thought! This isn’t a bad thing though. It’s a relief to be honest. I don’t need social media and social media doesn’t need me. Life still goes on and the world continues to rotate.

I was speaking with a couple last night who we typically see at birthdays, holidays, etc. We were talking about my hiatus and they divulged they, too, had sworn off social media for many of the same reasons that I’m now discovering. We agreed there is such a cleansing feeling from saying adios to the virtual land. Also, it forces (or encourages) us to reach out to people via other avenues of communication to just say, “Hello. How are you?” … rather than just browsing their newsfeed.

It’s incredible how much more I get out of the experience of being surrounded by people I love. For so many years, I always had my phone nearby and would check it constantly. These days I don’t even bring my phone with me into a restaurant or to a party. Because for every second wasted checking my phone, I’m missing out on conversations, interactions, and moments that I can never get back. I’m more engaged and I’ve had conversations with more people that I may not have interacted with in the past … mostly because if I wasn’t actively talking to someone, I knew I could just run to my phone, my comfort zone, and block out anyone or anything else happening around me. I felt like my time spent at dinners and parties in the last 30 days have been more fun and more meaningful because I was 100% present.

My Married Life

My marriage was suffering and I was too distracted to notice. I always thought we had a strong relationship and a pretty perfect marriage. Of course, all couples bicker here and there but, for the most part, I always felt very confident in our partnership. What I didn’t realize was that I was essentially having an affair with my phone and putting my husband on the back burner. Similar to my experience with our daughter, I noticed how much I was missing out with Jeff when I was completely consumed by my phone during date night or simply watching television together.

For the first time in years, Jeff and I had an opportunity to sit on our front porch and just enjoy a cup of coffee together. Just the two of us. No phones. We were enjoying the simplicity of each other for the first time in quite awhile. It didn’t need a picture to document that it actually happened. It’s a memory that, although may seem so simple to others, was so sweet and enjoyable to us.

In the last month, I remembered how much fun we used to have together when we first met. After all, when we met, smart phones weren’t really a thing. At least not something everyone had. In fact, Facebook wasn’t even around yet. I’m really aging us, I know, but it reminded me of why we fell in love with each other to begin with. It’s been really refreshing. Of course, no marriage is perfect and as in any relationship, there is always room to spice things up and keep things interesting. But it’s truly amazing (and sad, and scary) how removing social media from a marriage can spark such a renewed sense of joy. If one month of detox can do so much good, think of how much damage several years of the opposite can do.

The biggest thing I have learned, and it makes me sad for people who may never figure this out, is:

You can live a perfectly happy life without documenting a single second of it.

Of course it would have been nice to snap a selfie of Jeff and I enjoying our quiet morning on our front deck. However, just because I don’t have that selfie doesn’t mean it’s any less real. There are a few people in my life, whether personal or professional, who are completely obsessed with taking pictures of every single thing they do and posting on social media. It almost seems like they do it out of desperation ... as if their life doesn’t have any meaning unless it’s posted on social media. I’m genuinely sad for those people yet relieved that I came to this realization before I wasted any more of my life living that way.

It’s ok to do a nice thing for someone and not announce to the world that you did it. It’s ok to be really proud of your accomplishment. I promise, it doesn’t make it any less monumental if you don’t share it on your feed. Share these things with the people in your life who actually mean something to you. People who are going to show you genuine support and give you a real life high five, not an emoji.

There’s a saying, “Pics, or it didn’t happen.” I’m here to tell you that is B.S.

My Fit Life

This brings me to something else I did in the last month. I joined the Tuff Girl family. I quickly learned that Tuff Girl is not just another gym. It’s a group of primarily women who have created the most uplifting and encouraging community that I’ve ever seen. What’s interesting is I have joined this beautiful family and have been working on myself mentally and physically for ME ... not for the purpose of posting my achievements and progress on social media. I think my detox from social media, in conjunction with becoming a Tuff Girl, has provided me with the opportunity for some serious personal growth. Each time I walk into that gym, and I’m greeted by a room full of genuine smiles and encouraging hellos, I know that the next hour is for me to focus on myself and to let go of any outside stressors.

Tuff girl focuses on strength, both mental and physical. Let’s be real, this gym is no joke and we don’t sit around singing Kumbaya. It’s a serious kick-ass workout and my ass is looking a little higher and tighter because of it. But the reason I think I’ve gotten so much out of my experience with Tuff Girl is because each time I walk in for a session, it’s 100% about ME. I haven’t posted a single blurb about my first pull-up ... or about how I didn’t want to go to the gym but was so glad that I did. Why? Because for the first time, this is MY personal journey. It has nothing to do with getting Likes and comments under a Facebook post.

In years past, I can vividly remember going to the gym for the sake of saying I did, because I was looking for some type of virtual fist bump. Guess what, if you’re going to the gym for the approval of others, you aren’t getting out of it what you could be. It needs to be for you and about you. Tuff Girl has taught me some valuable lessons and I’m so grateful for my TG family. What I’ve also learned is that I can celebrate and be damn proud of myself for my accomplishments ... and they are just as amazing even without me posting them on social media.

So I guess we can call this a social experiment. I’m the prime example of a recovering social media addict. It completely consumed me. And if someone didn’t present me with a pretty sweet bet, I doubt I would’ve ever even attempted a detox. It has been the biggest blessing and I wish I had done it sooner. I know it sounds cliche’ but if I can do it, literally ANYONE can do it. But don’t do it for someone else, do it for you. You may cut yourself off from what seems like an endless virtual world but in reality, your actual world will get a whole lot bigger and brighter.

Honeybook Review! We Made The Switch. Here's What We Think.

At the beginning of this year, we switched over to Honeybook as our new client management software. We had researched a few different platforms and Honeybook just gave us a really good vibe. 😎It offered everything we needed at a very affordable price. It also appeared to be a platform geared toward creative types, which helped seal the deal for us.

Now that we’ve been using it for almost four solid months, we wanted to share some feedback!

Let’s begin with a review of all the things Honeybook does.

Project Management

Honeybook gives you the ability to set up new projects and manage them all from one place. There’s a dashboard that provides a high level view of everything you have going on and what stage each project is in.

Invoices & Online Payments

This is a biggie. It’s 2019, people … you really do need to be able to accept online payments! With Honeybook, you can generate invoices and email them over to your clients. In turn, clients can make payments online. The money hits your bank account within a few business days. Fast and easy!

eSign

With Honeybook, you can email a contract over to your client and have them eSign it. It all happens with just a few clicks of a button. It’s so simple on the client-facing side … and makes you look incredibly professional to boot!

Templates

One of our favorite Honeybook features, by far, is templates! When we first started our agency, we were constantly copying and pasting to create proposals. It was complete time suck. With Honeybook, you can create as many templates as your little heart desires. Templates for packages, proposals, emails … it’s all possible and incredibly easy to set up.

Bookkeeping

We’re creative people … not numbers people. So needless to say, accounting isn’t one of our favorite things to do. However, since we’ve switched over to Honeybook, keeping up with our business finances has definitely become less of a burden. We can track all of our revenue coming in and get real-time updates on profit and loss. We currently do not use Quickbooks but it’s important to mention that Honeybook does integrate with it. Another great feature on the bookkeeping side of things is payment reminders! It’s super easy to go in and see when payments are late and to send reminders to your clients.

Workflows

You know all of those repetitive tasks within your business that eat up a bunch of time each week? The workflows feature in Honeybook helps streamline your entire process! Here’s one example of how we use workflows. In the past, we would send our new clients an email with a link to our Welcome Package as part of the on-boarding process. Now, with Honeybook, we have this email set up as a template and it’s queued up and ready to go as soon as someone signs their contract. It’s all about creating efficiencies, right?

Who’s Honeybook for?

Honeybook has been designed for the creative entrepreneur: photographers, graphic designers, web designers, etc. As a small web design agency, we feel the platform is a perfect fit for us. It’s fairly intuitive and the client-facing side of things looks exceptionally professional.

How much does Honeybook cost?

At the time of this blog post, Honeybook is currently offering two different plans: a monthly plan billed at $40/month or a one-year plan billed annually at $400 (which works out to $34/month). Both plans include a free 7-day trial, so you can make sure HoneyBook is the right fit for you and your business.

Save 50% off your first year!

Think Honeybook might be for you? Use the special link below to save 50% off your first year! You’ll get all of the very cool bells whistles we talked about above for just $200 for your first year. That’s a pretty awesome deal if you ask us!

If you opt for the discount, comment below and let us know how your free 7-day trial goes!

One Week Down, Happily Forever To Go

One week ago, we were sitting at a table at a local pizza joint after our slumber party shoot when J and I got into a discussion about her quitting social media. She was absolutely convinced that anyone could quit social media ... that it’s just like quitting caffeine or any other crutch. It’s tough for a couple days, then you simply don’t miss it. Then came the bet. Jamie presented me with an offer I couldn’t refuse. She offered me fancy adirondack chairs for my new deck if I quit social media for one month. We shook on it (or we toasted, which seems more likely) and that was that.

So, today marks a little over a week that I have not looked at or engaged with any of my personal social media accounts.

[Full Disclosure: As you know, social media marketing is my jam so I did engage in social media related tasks for our clients only.]

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. I do not miss social media.

Just as J described, it took a day or two for me to shake the urge to check my phone. It had just become a chronic “condition” to press that home button on my phone to check for any updates on my social media accounts. But, by Tuesday, the urge had basically faded away. I actually feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I almost felt like it was my duty to check it, constantly. I know it sounds crazy but I felt compelled to stop whatever I was doing to check my social media accounts or post on them … or to stop and take a picture of something with the intent of sharing the photo on Facebook or Instagram. Just thinking about it now sounds exhausting.

2. Social media is the devil. 👹

I have always said that jokingly to people. However, I’m really not joking. Of course social media has its positives. It’s a wonderful tool to keep in touch with friends and family, especially if they aren’t local. As an animal advocate, I’m very aware that it has also saved thousands of lives. The networking opportunities are endless and animals that would otherwise never have had a chance are finding new loving homes thanks to the power of social media.

But here’s what else social media does ... it causes drama. It ruins relationships, raises my blood pressure, and makes me constantly question my worth because everyone is always posting how perfect their lives are. Even when I knew damn well that Susie Q’s life wasn’t as peachy as she made it look, it would still bother me to look at her photos of her picture perfect house, fancy car, and pics of her kids in their expensive clothes. I don’t even know why it would bother me because I live a pretty awesome life ... but it would. Or I would see friends out together and I would question why we weren’t invited. Even if there was no malicious intent on their part, it would hurt my feelings, and sometimes make my blood boil.

My quality of life has improved so dramatically, it’s almost unreal.

People will say, “Oh, did you see what so and so posted on Facebook! Doesn’t that make you mad?” Actually … nope. Didn’t see it, don’t care, and I’m much happier because I didn’t. Facebook in particular can be a really amazing tool for some things but it can truly breed trouble and my life is better without it. Sorry, not sorry.

3. My relationships with those around me have improved exponentially.

To think that I would mentally exit whatever I was doing or check out of whatever conversation I was having in actual life (yup, with an actual human being) to check in on a virtual world. How sad is that? Not only is it sad but I realize how downright rude I was being.

For the first time I was on the other side of talking to someone who was engrossed in their phone. I was talking to a zombie who was not actually listening to me. I was so irritated … then it hit me ... that I was guilty of this way too often. I don’t even know how I retained some of the relationships I have seeing as I have likely done this to all of them at one time or another. Of course, it was not my intent to be rude but, in hindsight, I was being a gigantic jerk.

4. My relationship with my four-year-old daughter has completely changed. 💜

This ties into the above but it deserves its own mention. I have never in all of her time here on Earth ever felt so present, and truly able to appreciate my daughter for who she is.

I would never label myself as a bad mother before. I would bring her to the aquarium, and show up to every karate class. I kissed her goodnight every single night, kissed boo boos, and gave her extra cookies even when I knew she had already reached her limit. I provided her with her basic needs, of course, and spoiled her with new stuffed animals and trips to Amatos. But here’s the thing …

Since the day she was born, I feel like I’ve watched my child grow up through the lens of my phone.

I was so wrapped up in the perceived necessity of snapping photos and posting them on social media that I forgot to actually be present and enjoy my daughter. How many thousands of moments have I missed because I was taking the pictures? I was completely engrossed in my phone as I was posting photos, coming up with clever captions, and then constantly checking in to see who liked or commented on the photos of my beautiful little girl being silly, or sweet, or creative!

I HAVE MISSED SO MUCH.

It hurts me to admit how much I have missed but the only thing I can do is make sure I don’t miss anymore. In just a week’s time my daughter has become more affectionate towards me. She seeks me out to show me something she has created or she simply asks me to come sit outside with her and watch the world go by. Granted, I’m sure she would have done these things with me all along but, after awhile, when a child feels ignored, they’ll eventually give up and go to someone else who will give them the attention they deserve.

In my case, I have always felt jealous of my husband because I thought my daughter liked him more. Here’s the thing ... it wasn’t that she liked him more. It was that he was always present with her and truly appreciated every moment he had with her. She was his priority when they were together. Whereas all of these years, my phone and social media accounts had become my priority. Imagine that.

In just one week my daughter picked up on the fact that my phone is not present during my time at home. She doesn’t have to ask me to pay attention if she wants to show me something on television. She doesn’t have to repeat herself when she asks me something because I hear her the first time. When I look at her, I truly see her for all of the magic and fun that she is. I always call her my wild child (and I mean that in the most beautiful way). If only we could all live our lives with the same outlook that she has this world would be a much better place.

I wasn’t a bad mother prior to my social media hiatus. I was just not a present mother.

And how sad to think of all of the wonderful moments that I missed that I can’t get back. Sure, I have pictures and videos, but it’s simply not the same. My relationship with my little girl suffered and I’m just so grateful that I made this realization now and that I still have so many years left to enjoy and cherish.

5. I have gained so much time and increased my productivity tenfold.

So much time was wasted aimlessly scrolling. Whether it be at work or during my free time. In fact, this past weekend my daughter and I were able to clean up an old stump and create a crazy awesome fairy garden. It was a great experience and it was just me and her. No distractions and we got a ton of work done! So much fun! When you don’t have such a time suck to pull you in, you find legitimate work to get done. Win, win!

So in the end, am I saying I will never check in on Facebook again? Probably not as it is a way of keeping in touch with people that I don’t get to see often. However, I will commit to continuing my hiatus for the rest of the month for sure. I’m convinced that at month’s end I’m going to uncover many more benefits of staying away from social media. So who knows? I may cut the cord all together by then and head back to the days of letters and telephone calls to keep in touch. Anyone who knows me is probably as shocked as I am but life is a journey of learning and growth. This life lesson is one I’m grateful for.

Girls’ Night Out: Friends Photo Shoot

Photography by S & Company Portrait Photography

Sometimes you just need a break from the daily grind. And what better way is there to de-stress than spending a girls’ night out with your friends? Well, that’s exactly what we did last Friday. We actually had so much fun that we had to share about the experience on our blog.

Our very dear friend Nicole (a.k.a. Coco) arranged for us to have a slumber party themed photoshoot. Sounds interesting, right? So we purchased matching PJs, scheduled hair appointments, and before we knew it, the day had finally arrived. We were so excited to get pampered and enjoy a girls’ night out!

The photographer who orchestrated this whimsical little event is Stephanie of S & Company Portrait Photography. As we were getting our make-up done in her Cheshire-based studio, she served us a fruit and cheese plate … poured us some Prosecco🍾 … and made us feel completely at home!

The photo shoot couldn’t have been any more fun.

Playing dress up and jumping on a bed while throwing around confetti … when’s the last time you did something like that?!

And did we mention there was Prosecco involved?

Within a few days after our shoot, Stephanie emailed us a link to the photos. We loved them all! Going through the album, it was quite evident how much fun we really had that night.

Here are a few of our favorites.

The three amigas: Katie, J, and Coco

Katie be like: “Fill that glass homie!!” Seriously, she really said that.

More Prosecco, please.

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Girls’ Night Out 2019

Want to relive a piece of your childhood and let loose for a night? We’d definitely recommend scheduling a girls’ night out shoot with Stephanie! We had a blast and so will you.

How To Incorporate HubSpot Into Your Boudoir Photography Business

If you’re in the business of boudoir photography, then generating new leads and getting repeat business is probably important to you. In today’s post, we’re going to share how to reach your sales goals with the help of HubSpot’s Marketing Starter plan.

What’s HubSpot?

HubSpot is a marketing software built around the concept of Inbound Marketing. The platform can help you “grow traffic, convert more visitors, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale.” (HubSpot)

With over 56K customers in over 100 different countries, HubSpot is a very serious player in the game of content management and automation.

HubSpot plans range from free all the way up to $3,200 per month! In this post, we’re going to focus in on the Marketing Hub Starter, which starts at only $50 per month. It’s an economical choice for a small boudoir photography business … and one that will give you some serious bang for your buck.

Features Of The Marketing Hub Starter

HubSpot occasionally makes changes to their plan offerings but at this time (April 2019), here are some highlights on what the Marketing Hub Starter has to offer:

Forms:

You can create forms using HubSpot and embed them on your website. Data from the submissions on these forms will automatically be collected in your HubSpot database. You also have the option to track submissions on any external forms you have on your site. (Note: there are some special guidelines for doing this.)

The forms tool also lets you create pop-up forms that you can use to generate leads on your top performing website pages!

Contact Activity:

Once a contact in your database clicks on an email you sent them or submits a form on your website, you’ll be able to monitor their future engagement with your marketing thanks to the use of cookies. 🍪 Within a contact’s HubSpot profile, you can see which emails they’ve opened, links or CTAs they’ve clicked on, and even which website pages they’ve viewed. Pretty neat, right?!

Contact Management:

HubSpot is the perfect place for storing all of your clients’ information. With HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Starter, you can easily manage your client and lead database using pre-built and custom properties.

Email Marketing:

You can send marketing emails right out of HubSpot! (With the Starter plan, there’s a cap of 5X your contact tier per calendar month. So if your plan includes 1,000 contacts, you can send out 5,000 emails per month. This would equate to 5 different mailings if you emailed all 1,000 of your contacts each month.) For more on what is and isn’t included with emails in the Starter plan, click here.

Lists:

You can segment the contacts in your database using different criteria. With Marketing Hub Starter, you’re allotted 25 smart lists and 25 static lists.

Ideas For Incorporating HubSpot Into Your Boudoir Photography Business

So now that you know what HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Starter is all about, let’s talk about a few ways you can incorporate these tools into your business.

Client and Lead Management

By importing your leads and current clients into HubSpot, contact management becomes streamlined and easy. Once you begin filling your database, you can create segmented lists for your email campaigns and really begin to target your marketing efforts in a more strategic way. You’ll also be able to create notes within each and every contact record. Pretty much anything you need to remember about someone can be notated on their HubSpot record!

Inquiry And Booking Forms

By converting the forms on your website to HubSpot forms, all submissions will automatically flow into your HubSpot database. Again, you can place contacts on specific lists within your Marketing Hub based on which forms they have completed on your website.

Content Offers And Opt-in Gifts

If you have opt-in gifts, downloadable guides, or checklists on your website, you’ll definitely want to sync these campaigns up with your Marketing Hub. You can create unique forms for each offer and embed them on the appropriate landing pages. Knowing what your leads are specifically interested in gives you a tremendous advantage when creating follow-up marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing

HubSpot’s email marketing tool within the Marketing Hub Starter is neat, clean, and easy to use! Again, there are some limitations on the number of emails you can send each month based on the number of contacts you have in your database. However, HubSpot offers options for upgrading if you need more than what’s allowed in the plan.

Conclusion

If you’re like many small business owners, you use a lot of different technologies to accomplish different things. Switching over to HubSpot allows you to roll a bunch of technologies into one platform … and who doesn’t love creating efficiencies like that?

If you’re looking to streamline your marketing efforts, the HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter might be a great fit for you. And we’d be happy to offer you a free 15-minute consult to look at your current processes and see how they might be transitioned over. Click the button below to schedule a free consult with us!

The Pros and Cons Of HubSpot: An Honest Review From A Very Avid User

I discovered HubSpot in 2014 and became instantly hooked. Being the Little Marketing Genius that I am 😉, the automation capabilities astounded me. I was equally impressed with how HubSpot marketed itself. All of the free content and thousands upon thousands of helpful blog posts. Yup, like I said, I was hooked.

Over time, I became a self-proclaimed expert on the HubSpot marketing platform. I achieved several certifications through the HubSpot Academy. I created countless campaigns for different companies that included email, social media messaging, blog posts, and workflow automations. The beauty of it all was being able to quickly and easily see the data and track the results of my efforts.

In September of 2016 I attended HubSpot’s Inbound conference for the first time. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid! Being surrounded by thousands of marketers who loved HubSpot as much as I did was completely thrilling. I also got to experience HubSpot’s fun and progressive corporate culture firsthand. Man could these guys put on an event! Needless to say, my obsession sky-rocketed and I became even more entrenched in the platform in 2017.

Ok, so the point of this long-winded intro is to make it clear that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to HubSpot. For the past five years I’ve been using it religiously. I’m logged in on an average of five days per week. I’m still creating Inbound marketing campaigns, analyzing data, and keeping myself up to speed on the latest and greatest tech updates.

In this blog post, my intent is to give you my very honest opinion on HubSpot. The platform has gone through significant changes over the years and will probably continue to do so over the next several years. Today I’ll fill you in on the things that I currently love and the things that make me want to pull my hair out at times. Here goes!

😃The marketing platform is incredible.

To this day, I’m still amazed at the power of HubSpot’s marketing platform. The technology is just awesome. Putting together campaigns and tracking their success is where I find enormous value in HubSpot. The campaign management tool gives you a bird’s eye view of each and every one of your Inbound campaigns. Emails, social media posts, CTAs, blog posts, landing pages … the results associated with each component can be monitored and tracked along every step of the way.

From a usability standpoint, I’d say the interface and tools are pretty intuitive. If you’re brand new to HubSpot, I would definitely recommend taking some free courses from the HubSpot Academy. There’s plenty to choose from and you go at your own pace. The HubSpot Academy was my lifesaver when I first started using the platform.

🙁It’s pricey.

The best technology comes at a price. This is no surprise. That said, be prepared to pay a pretty penny for HubSpot. At this moment in time, the Professional version starts at $800 per month. Now if your jaw just dropped, don’t worry. There are lesser memberships available but they don’t give you all the bells and whistles you get with the Professional or Enterprise versions.

😃The resources just keep on coming.

I mentioned the HubSpot Academy earlier in this post but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the helpful resources HubSpot makes available to people.

When you’re logged into your portal, there’s a section called the Learning Center and in it, you’ll find a plethora of valuable tutorials and content. Topics include:

• Sales Enablement

• Contact Management

• Website Design

• Email Marketing

• Inbound Sales

• Marketing Automation

• Social Media

• SEO

• Lead Generation

There’s everything your little heart could possibly desire when it comes learning about Inbound and the HubSpot platform.

Then there’s the HubSpot blog. It’s AWESOME. Even if you never plan on buying HubSpot, you should subscribe to their blog. The content is fresh and incredibly useful, guaranteed!

🙁The initial support for set-up is so-so.

I have mixed feelings on HubSpot’s account reps. When you first purchase HubSpot, you’ll be assigned a specific person who will help get your platform set up and ready for use. However, from what I’ve experienced, these folks typically know only the very basics about HubSpot. I would HIGHLY recommend familiarizing yourself with HubSpot or dedicating an employee to it if you’re making the investment. The HubSpot account reps will only cover the basics of setting you up. Putting the platform to work for your company is entirely on you. However, like I said before, their training tools are phenomenal and they definitely provide you with everything you need to become an expert!

😃The Help Desk offers very decent service and turnaround.

I’ve emailed HubSpot’s Support Team numerous times over the years regarding issues or questions I’ve had and the response time has been pretty good. And off the top of my head, I can’t think of one issue I submitted that didn’t get resolved.

🙁The glitches have increased.

It’s my opinion that HubSpot has gotten extremely glitchy. There are days I literally have to log out and take a break due to pure frustration over things not working properly. I find most of the glitches to be on the data entry side of things. For example, just the other day I was trying to log a meeting on somebody’s contact record. When I clicked on the calendar button to choose the date of my meeting, the calendar would pop up and then suddenly disappear. It was incredibly aggravating. Things similar to this seem to happen more and more these days.

😃Let me tell you about lists and workflows...

I freaking LOVE making lists in HubSpot. I’m a list-making geek. 🤓You can literally group contacts together by any criteria you can possibly imagine. You have endless possibilities when it comes to creating HubSpot lists!

And then there’s workflows … probably my all-time favorite thing in HubSpot. Using workflows, you can trigger any number of things to happen automatically behind the scenes. For example, if a contact in the LMG database visited our Website Design page more than three times, I can set up a workflow to send them a follow-up email. If a contact lives in a certain zip code, I can use a workflow to assign them to a particular list. Honestly, you can do just about anything with workflows. It’s very cool.

🙁The Design Manager is not user-friendly.

HubSpot’s Design Manager allows you create custom templates and designs for your landing pages, emails, and blog. If you’re not versed in code, DO NOT attempt to play around in here. It’s very easy to accidentally screw something up and it can be very difficult to figure out how to fix it.

The conclusion: IF …

• You’re looking to launch an Inbound marketing strategy AND

• You can afford at least $800/month AND

• You or someone on your team will make the investment to learn HubSpot

THEN GO FOR IT!

HubSpot is an amazing platform that can offer you limitless advantages in the game of Inbound Marketing. No, the system isn’t perfect but I personally love it and I still highly recommend it to this day.

Happy HubSpotting!

PUMP THE BRAKES!

Before you can even consider HubSpot and/or launching an Inbound Marketing strategy, you first need to figure out your buyer personas. And we’ve got the perfect tool for this.

The Revelation I Made In Puerto Rico (It Might Surprise You)

A few weeks ago, I took a vacation to Puerto Rico with one of my besties. A much needed vacation. The goal of our trip: RELAXATION. As we were waiting at our gate to depart, we made a pact to not check social media while we were away. I couldn’t be happier to log off and fully disconnect! Actually, I had been tinkering with the thought of ditching social media in my personal life so the timing was quite perfect to finally do so. After agreeing to abandon Facebook and Instagram for a week, we both moved the icons for those tempting little apps right off the main screen on our iPhones. Ahhhhhhhh! It felt incredibly refreshing!

After landing in Puerto Rico, we had some time to spare before our room was ready. In true fashion, we found our way to the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar to celebrate our girl’s trip with some Prosecco. Now, the old me would have immediately busted out my phone to take the obligatory selfie for a social media post. I’ll admit … the thought did cross my mind but the new me left my phone in my bag and instead, soaked in the sound of the crashing waves in the background. And that’s when it really, truly hit me. The magnitude of what we miss when we’re focused on our cell phone screens. How many precious moments get stolen by our attachment to social media?

No camera can really capture the true beauty of a sunset.

And then there’s the productivity piece of this frightening equation.

🕛Scrolling through the Facebook feed.
🕒Liking photos on Instagram.
🕧 Watching videos on YouTube.
🕘Posting stuff.
🕑Going back and checking your posts to see who has commented.
⏰OMG!

Honestly, how many hours of productivity are lost per day … per week … per month … ?! Eeeeeekkk!

I’m not sure if it was because I was on a beautiful island in the Caribbean or what but it suddenly clicked for me. A revelation that I believe has been building for awhile but finally came to light in lovely Puerto Rico.

Social media SUCKS.

Now granted, I do believe there are some positive aspects of it. I get to share in the experiences of my family and friends who don’t live close by. I’m reminded of special birthdays, anniversaries, or other life events. I can do a little networking here and there. I can view photos of dogs, which always makes me smile.

However, when I really started thinking about the bigger picture, it became evident to me that social media was actually having a more negative impact in my life than a positive one. More often than not, I’d close out of Facebook or Instagram feeling bad about myself … and I lead a pretty great life so that’s absurd. Self doubt, negativity, jealousy. All of those terrible things that can send you off on an emotional roller coaster.

It was there at the 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar … beside my friend … surrounded by happy native pups looking for French fries and burger scraps … soothed by the sounds of the sea … I made the choice to take a break from social media.

I’ll just chill here

Until you drop something :)

At the time I’m writing this post, it has now been 22 days since I’ve checked any of my personal social media accounts. (Business is different. That’s a necessary evil but one that I can live with at the moment.) It has made such an impact in my life that I decided to blog about it. I’m feeling so fabulous about this hiatus that I hope to inspire you to take a break from social media, too!

Here are some of the changes I’ve experienced since my break-up with social media:

1. I have a more positive body image.

2. I can think more clearly.

3. I’m less distracted.

4. I’m more productive during my work day.

5. I’m less stressed out overall.

6. I’m more confident about where I am in life.

7. I feel an incredible sense of empowerment.

8. I’m able to be in the moment.

9. I enjoy more meaningful time with my husband, friends, and family.

10. I’m just plain happier.

Will I ever be on social media again? I’m not sure. Honestly, it feels like giving up sugar or wine for awhile. There are just so many immediate and positive effects. I’d like to say I’m done forever. However, just like with sugar and wine, it’s tempting and easy to go back. Although if I had to choose between Facebook and wine … and I could only have one for the rest of my life … it’s wine all the way! 🍷

I encourage you to take a challenge. Try giving up social media for a single week. (It’s only a week … you can do anything for a week, right?!) I promise you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how it makes you feel. If you do give it a whirl, I’d love to know how it works out for you.

Take a 1-week break from social media … we dare you!

Boudoir Photography Clients To Avoid

Along the way, I’ve developed relationships with my boudoir photography clients. They share stories and, with each story, I always take away something that I believe can be beneficial in either my own business or beneficial to other photographers.

The latest tip I’m about to share is really quite straightforward and simple but I feel it’s important to say it aloud (and even louder for those in the back):

IT’S OK TO SAY NO.

And by this I mean, it’s really quite fine to say NO to prospective clients when you’re not digging their vibe … if you get the sense that they just don’t align with your ideal type of client. In fact, I highly HIGHLY recommend you do say no to these individuals. Here’s why …

Once upon a time, we took on the wrong type of client. A client who absolutely did not fit our ideal client persona. You can read the full story here but to sum it up, here’s what we learned from the experience …

When you take on the wrong client, you can expect to be:

• Expending time and energy explaining the benefits of your product or service (as well as your process)

• Feeling under-appreciated, undervalued, and sometimes downright disrespected

• Handling lots of complaints from the customer or client

• Chasing down payments you’re owed

• Feeling unfulfilled by what you’re delivering

• Dreading emails or phone calls from the customer or client

• Dealing with headaches … lots of headaches

In chatting with some of our favorite boudoir photographer friends, they’ve shared similar stories. (Yay! We’re not alone!!) From what I’ve gathered, here’s a list of personality traits that you’ll probably want to steer clear of as a boudoir photographer (a.k.a When you meet an individual who demonstrates these traits, go running for the hills and don’t look back!).

1.) The overly needy client.

These types mean no harm. They don’t even know they’re doing it! And to be honest, they mostly can’t help themselves. They’re the ones who will blow up your Inbox constantly. Asking you what to wear. What color to paint their nails. What to wax. What not to wax. They will also start to feel comfortable with you and vent to you about their dating life or how awful it is that they can’t find matching socks.

Listen, you boudoir photographers are amazing. Y’all must have majored in psychology because let’s face it … many women have insecurities. The true art of boudoir is all about empowering women and promoting self love. You should absolutely want to make your clients feel comfortable and build a relationship with them. You should absolutely nurture your clients and dual as a therapist of sorts when needed. That’s totally cool and you do it very well. However, I’m not talking about the clients who need a basic level of support from you. I’m talking about the ones who are OTT (OVER THE TOP). They can’t get out of their own way and they’re going to make you crazy before they ever even step foot in your door. Time is money! Remember, the more time you spend dealing with the overly needy is less time you can dedicate toward working with your dream clients.

2.) The client who makes you go, “You want me to photograph WHAT?!”

I find I keep hearing more and more of these stories … especially when it comes to couples boudoir. However, I can totally see it coming up with solo sessions, too. You are photographing nude women [and men] so I’m guessing your comfort threshold is pretty vast anyway. Clients might ask you to photograph some things that are down and dirty, perhaps kinky. If that’s your thing, awesome. If it’s not, and it’s outside of what you feel comfortable shooting, say no NOW. This is why a pre-booking consult is imperative. You learn so much from people when you hear what their expectations are. If they want you to photograph them with their significant other engaging in some super X-rated fantasy, and that’s just not how you roll, say no NOW. Say no before they’re in your studio and things get uncomfortable. There’s a photographer out there for them but it doesn’t have to be you.

3.) The creepy client.

I’m all about safety because let’s be real … people be cray! If someone is giving you the heebie jeebies and they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, walk away. I don’t care if they’re a man, woman, black, white, polka dotted, undecided, have six heads, or hold the world record for largest Bible collection. You have the right to feel safe at all times and wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry? Most of our clients work out of a studio, whether it be in their home or a private studio in a store front. Generally it’s just the photographer and the client for several hours. You may have hair and makeup peeps, but maybe you don’t, or maybe they do their thing, then leave. You should NEVER put yourself in a situation that can put you in harms way. I don’t care what they’re willing to pay you for a sitting fee. Listen to your gut.

4.) The know-it-all.

Lord have mercy, these stories kill me. Listen, they exist. The clients who took a photography class or two offered through the local community college … they learned some basics and now they’re an expert! Yeah, those clients. They’re going to school you on all sorts of things. The good news is you do have a chance with a client like this if you can bring them down off their high horse. However, if you can’t manage to convince them that YOU’RE the expert on boudoir lighting, posing, etc. and they want to continue to be super pushy … say goodBYE. Pinterest is a beautiful thing, as is Instagram, but you’re not in the business of replicating Pinterest boards. You provide a unique experience. “I totes love that filtered selfie of you on IG, but that’s not what I do here.” 🙄

5.) The never gonna be satisfied client.

These folks are not always spotted easily. However, if you watch and/or listen close … whether it be in conversations you have with them or by stalking their social media accounts … I’ll bet you can pick them out. They’re the ones who are going to ask you for the world, lined in gold, with glitter on top. And when you deliver said sparkly masterpiece, they’ll be drastically unappreciative and unsatisfied. There is no satisfying some people. No matter the time, energy, or effort. Do not waste precious time on these people. If you see them constantly complaining about other people or businesses (especially other photographers!), you spot several bad reviews they have written, or you get the sense they’re completely unreasonable … those are red flags. Run!!

6. The B.I.T.C.H. (both on or off wheels)

To be blunt, there are some mean people out there. There are selfish, greedy, rude, and downright bad people out there. Do not get into a war with these people even if you think you can out-bitch them. It’s not worth your time and you don’t need to subject yourself to that type of treatment. You’re the expert. The professional. You should be treated as such. You should be respected and be treated kindly, just as you treat your clients. So in the words of Bhad Bhabie “bye Bitch.”

Build a profile for your dream client using our free client persona builder!

Once you know exactly who your dream client is, you’ll never make the mistake of taking on a nightmare client ever again. Download our free Client Persona Builder today!

Listen, you’re the boss. It’s your business. But if you take on one of these types of clients I just mentioned, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The bottom line is, you have your ideal client persona. Whether you have formally created one or not, we all have that ideal client that we dream of. Of course, not every client is going to be easy peasy perfect. But it’s about setting boundaries and identifying when a potential client is WAY out of range.

Time is money. ESPECIALLY in a creative industry. Your work and value is priceless as it is something that comes from the depths of your soul. Your eye is unmatched and can’t be replicated, which does come with a price tag. What’s important is that you not compromise or discount your price tag inadvertently by spending way too much time on these undesirable types.

-Katie